Seeing Stars and Spandex
by M. Castor
Summary: Curiousity kills the cat, and Mizuki just happens to be that cat. In an attempt to have a peaceful night after an unsettling one, our Oriental American finds herself in a mess she really didn't want get involved in. Read after DREAMING OF THE PAST
1. Chapter 1

**I really had trouble figuring out how this story was going to go. But then I got over it. Hope you like it!**

"I know you saved me and all, but that doesn't mean you can barge into my room!"

I can tell from the way the door is limply swinging open that she broke the lock to get in. Is she a robber looking for something-why else would she come in and enter my subconscious. Oh God, was she going to pull some _Inception_ thingy on me?

Hoodie struggles to get to her feet, holding her hand on her chest as if something was grabbing at it.

"Well, are going to answer me, Hoodie?" I'm really not in the mood for this and I'll admit, I'm being a little drama-queenesque, but who can blame me? Hoodie mumbles something incoherently with her head down.

"Can you speak up?"

Abruptly, she opens her hand while pointing at me and a blue sword that has streaks of crimson. Its tip rests under my chin, leaving me petrified.

"Shut up," she snarls sinisterly. I simply plop back down on the bed with a horrified gaze. What's wrong with this girl? I mean, I think I can take her but, I value my life. "Ugh-ngh, do not…let me hurt you."

Hoodie turns towards the door and storms out, slamming the broken door behind her. I exhale deeply, relieved that I dodged two bullets in one afternoon. She sounded a lot calmer, still monotone, but nonetheless I wasn't scared of her when I was dreaming; but now, she was a totally different person. Oh well, guess who's never going to bed?

'

I fold my arms as I maunder throughout the streets. It's exactly 8:30pm and it says on the giant electronic screen that it's 45 degrees out here. I'm glad I could afford to buy these new clothes with the money I made from the missions 'cause it's freezing out here! Besides, I used to love taking night walks alone at home, and it would be cold like this.

I find a bench to sit on and simply gaze up at the invisible stars. Sometimes, I think that I belong up there with the stars and the moon.

"_Mom," I asked while sitting in the car, staring up at the pursuing moon. "Did you go to space?"_

_Mom chuckled and glanced at both Haruki and I in her rearview mirror. "Why would ask something like that?"_

"'_Cuz I want to," Haruki and I replied simultaneously. "And…I wanna sleep on the moon!"_

"_You two kids are too much."_

I sigh depressingly, still looking up at the night sky. Will I ever find you guys? As I start to drop my head sleepily, a black figure darts across the top of a building.

"What is that?" I get off the bench, and follow the dark figure with my eyes. It darts across the buildings like a ninja pursuing its prey. My itching curiosity gets the best of me; soon, I'm running alongside the figure, trying my best to catch up to the mysterious thing. Already after ten seconds of lightly jogging, I slow down and lean against a fire hydrant. Whoever that girl is, I bet she's long gone by now-damn, I really should have done more working out in the gym.

Ooh, she's stopping at the edge of that apartment building. I'll go check it out.

* * *

><p>I raise the radar to the sky, hoping for a signal. "Loading, please wait…" it says, as if it wants to raise my anxiety levels. Please work, come on, come on, come on.<p>

"Why?" I shake the radar as it reads "no signal" without sympathy. This is of no use to me, I should just stick to finding _normal_ gemstones-it seems to be all I'm good at. I don't even feel like stealing anything tonight-it's too cold and I'm too tired. What good is this stupid radar to me now that it can't track their location?

As I drop the radar through the slits of the platform for the escape ladder, I don't hear it clang against the ground. Instead I hear a quiet, "ow".

"Spying on me I see," I jump from the railing to the lower railing to intimidate the spy. "Kid what do you want?"

"I was just-hey, I remember you," the girl angrily points out while still hanging onto the escape ladder.

"Well I don't remember you, that's for sure. Run along home now."

"You don't remember me at all?"

The nearby street lamp isn't enough to help me recognize the spy.

"I don't have time to talk to you kid." I swing upward, landing on my feet, ready to leave. I see plenty of people every day, why would I remember some kid anyway?

"You don't remember wanting my Chaos Emerald?" she continues tentatively. The girl's face appears in my head; that girl who wouldn't hand over that Chaos Emerald and called me Spandex or something along those lines.

"Oh! Now I remember you-you've come back for payback? Or maybe you found a Chaos Emerald you're willing to share?" I ask suggestively.

"Uh no."

"So what are you-oi, I don't have time for this."

I skip down to the ground, snatch the radar I dropped, and turn it on. Blast it, this radar isn't picking anything up. How am I going to-

"Hold on."

The gears in my head begin to click. From what Don mentioned to me before, about there being three shooting stars that can track down the Chaos Emeralds. Could this girl be one of trackers? There's only way to find out.

"Hey, get down here kid," says Spandex Girl suspiciously.

* * *

><p>Why did I have to be too curious for my own good? I let go of the handle and drop right next to her, losing my footing because of the small wedge under my boots. Spandex Girl smirks at me innocently, while her eyes slyly scan my outfit.<p>

"You're gonna help me with something," she states as opposed to kindly asking.

"Do I have a choice?"

"If you help me, you live. If you don't, then you'll-"

Using this opportunity, I essay a fast jab in the face; she sees what I'm doing, snatches my wrist and raises it over our heads, and kicks my rib cage. Oh God, I feel it trembling as I try to fall on my knees and wrap my other arm around it, but Spandex Girl keeps me from falling.

"Don't try to get sneaky now. I'm just asking you for a simple favor, and when you do it, we'll be total strangers, destined to _never meet again_," she says convincingly. "Capiche?"

Sucking in a sharp breath, I close my eyes and nod, giving in to her demand. "What-is it?"

"Track down a Chaos Emerald."

"And why would I-"

She pulls harder on my hand. "Don't ask, just do what I tell you. Think hard and concentrate."

I picture the large gem in my head, shining brightly in the vacuum in my head. It's an inexplicable feeling, but I feel as if I'm connected to the gem. But it's so far away, and I can sense more than one in the same spot. A plethora maybe?

"Ok, ok, I can feel them! Let go of my arm already," I hastily insist. Spandex Girl releases my arm and disregards my need to cringe on the ground by hovering over my back.

"Let's get moving then, while the night's still young."

What did I get myself into?


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you leading me into some trap kid?" asks Spandex Girl as we run along the Metro-Bridge. I've never been out of the house past 11 at night-it's currently 1:00AM.

"Why would I do that?"

"Well gee, who knows why? I'm sure you would never want to lead me into a trap or anything."

"And by the way, my name is Mizuki, not kid."

I hang my head to the sky limply. The skies are cloudy and grey, swallowing the moon and stars whole like a child devouring milk and cookies. Spandex Girl impatiently persists that I hurry it up or else she'll push me over the railing.

"What do you want with these Emeralds anyway?"

"Never mind what I want to do them," she insists while shoving my shoulder to get me to move faster. "We don't have all night."

"You're right about that," I sarcastically reply as I climb over the railing. "Help me down here."

She crosses her arms unsatisfactorily. "Why should I?"

"They're below here, that's why."

Spandex Girl helps me get under the bridge, where all the trash and dirt has been dumped. I grimace at the odious scents of the trash heaps; my brand new leather boots will already be tarnished. Immediately, I hold my breath and start digging my way through the trash. With silent reluctance, Spandex Girl joins me.

"Uck, this is sickening. You better not be doing this for your own satisfaction."

Equipped with the white eye trick, I reply, "I'm not. Here, there's something weird beneath here, help me move all this shit."

With our bare hands, we toss away the garbage blocking the handle my white eyes detected. Spandex Girl yanks on the handle, opening a trapdoor.

"Of course she would have her lair hidden like this. That's why my radar didn't work…ok kid, get in."

'

"You expect me to go in there-!" I exclaim while pointing at the colossal, technological hideout. It's tricked out with 360◦ cameras, red security lasers that stretch all the way to our feet, and walking chunks of metal standing guard.

Spandex Girl takes out something that looks like a radar and sucks in her teeth. "Sorry, as long as this thing refuses to track down any Chaos Emeralds, you're with me until the job is done. Don't think of doing anything stupid now."

I really don't want to be here doing this. Why can't I just go back to good ol' dream California, where I can live out my memories? Even that sounds better than being here with Spandex Girl.

"Well, how are we getting in? Obviously not through the front door," I surmise. Spandex Girl glances at the pipes protruding on the side of the hideout.

"Follow my every move if you wanna get out of this alive."

The next thing I know it, I'm crawling through a pipe, which exhales white smoke every five minutes. After a tedious twenty minutes of being stuck in a tube, we climb out of the pipe and lean against the wall, looking for cameras in the midnight-color lighted hall.

"Stay put," Spandex Girl says as she tosses small, metal spheres onto the walls. They travel upward towards the cameras and once they enter the lenses, sparks fly from the cameras. "Time to move."

Recklessly and wildly, trying to keep the little stamina I have, I sprint down the dark hallway, using only my inexplicable intuition and lit up azure lines along with walls and ceilings. Spandex Girl thinks constantly shoving me while I run will give me a boost, but all it does is enrage me. After the fourth push, I can't take it anymore.

"_Enough with the shoving!"_

"How far away are we?" she impatiently asks, disregarding my pissed off shout.

"Just down this hallway-"

The obnoxious, blaring alarm dyes the whole place in flashing, crimson lights. A trembling from behind gets closer, making me _really_ concerned for my safety. I guess the disabling of the cameras might have triggered an alarm-we weren't too stealthy either, ok, _I _wasn't too stealthy. Anyways, Spandex Girl grits her teeth and screams at me, "run!"

Side by side, we run towards the elevator at the corner of the hallway, which can lead us to where the Chaos Emeralds are. A small rocket whizzes past our ears, bringing us to a halt. Ten-foot high robots block the path behind us, with bazookas for hands.

"Located intruder. Located intruder," it repeats while registering us as foes. "Eliminate."

"I'll handle this, go upstairs and I'll meet you up there," Spandex Girl commands, heading towards the humongous foes just as they approach us.

"Wait!" I call out with my extended hand.

Behind the robots, an automatic wall comes down, and then another…crap, they're trying to trap us here. I turn to the elevator and sprint as fast as I can. Every wall behind me was slamming faster and faster, diminishing my hope of ever reaching the elevator. I hear one right behind me slam shut and then the one in front of me starts coming down.

"Shit, I can't make it!"

I attempt to slide under, but as I get my torso underneath, the wall closes in faster. Suddenly it stops, allowing me to pass through with ease. How did that happen? I bend down to wait to see if the wall is going to shut anyway-it doesn't. I don't hear anymore rockets shooting off, or moving metal, or Spandex Girl's grunts as she kicks ass far behind me.

"This is a little weird," I assume as I catch a glimpse of the frozen lights along the walls. When I reach the elevator door, a giant grey robot stands an inch away from me. I shriek, falling to the ground, but then I realize that I haven't been killed yet. As I stand up, I scrutinize the robot petrified in place-unable to move. "Okay this is really weird."

There's only one explanation for this phenomenon-_I froze time_, somehow. Ok Mizuki, that's a little far-fetched, even for you-I don't have time for this mental debate!

'

I step into the unusually warm room, looking around at the dome above and the steep fall below me. Only a narrow pathway is here to guide me towards where the Choas Emeralds are. Something that looks like a containment pod reposes at the end of the sealed off room. Before I look for the Chaos Emeralds in the pod, I peer in to the glass and stand back agape.

That's-that's the man from before!

"Leather Jacket Guy," I realize aloud. His eyes are shut tight but there's no way he's dead. It's more like he's sleeping, so that means-

The elevator door behind me opens. "Get out of the way kid!" I recognize Spandex Girl's voice, as she pushes me away from his pod.

"Did you touch anything?" she demands rudely, with a serious tone all of a sudden. The gears in my head begin to turn and puzzle pieces in my head click together as I realize what's happening here.

"_He's a vampire, isn't he?_ I figured it out."

Spandex Girl glances at me with a perplexed face and chuckles patronizingly. "Seriously? No."

"Are you sure?"

She rolls her eyes as she tenderly places her hands on the glass. Spandex Girl stays frozen like that until I point out that Chaos Emeralds are somewhere in the machine. We bend down and pry open a lid that has the Chaos Emeralds in them. As she and I reach for them, kaleidoscopic lights scintillate and my entire body is overwhelmed with surging pain.

* * *

><p>What the hell is going on? She didn't touch the Chaos Emeralds and they've swarmed all over her body. I try to touch one of them, but I get a small shock. Crap, this is a big problem.<p>

"What the hell is going on in here?"

"_Gaaaaaah!"_ Mizuki continues convulsing without end.

"Damn it," I get to my feet as Egglady points the shotgun at us.

**Finally complete, don't forget those reviews. I promise to make better stories and mail cookies to your house.**


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